muc2asia

Wanted to know, if anyone experienced any good AirBnB places in Paris?

Is this a cheaper option than Paris Hotels. We will be staying one week in Paris in August?

Tamino

Due to recent regulatory changes in France and specifically Paris, most of the apartments found on AirBnB or VRBO are now illegally operated. Apartment owners have been fined and forced to remove their properties listing sites.

I would approach any short term apartment rental in Paris with an abundance of caution.

muc2asia

Thanks for the heads up. I found what you are talking about on BBC.com. But AirBnB is very coy in trying to make Paris an "open" market for AirBnB. Read below for AirBnB website.

Paris Leads the World on Home Sharing
February 27, 2015 By Patrick Robinson

Today is an exciting day for the Airbnb community, as we announced that Paris is now the top destination in the world for home sharing.

More than 40,000 Parisians are now opening their homes to respectful guests from around the world. These are regular people who make a little extra cash by sharing their homes with guests who want to experience this truly amazing city by living like a local. There also more Parisians travelling on Airbnb than in any other in any other city in the world.

More than 90 per cent of hosts in Paris have only one listing and more than 70 per cent are outside of the main tourist areas. Not only is this helping regular Parisians to stay in their homes and afford living costs, it is spreading the economic benefits of tourism to the far corners of this great city and helping visitors discover communities beyond the regular tourist hotspots.

In recognition of Paris embracing innovation and hospitality, we are pleased to announce that this year’s Airbnb Open will be held in Paris – the first time it has been held outside of San Francisco, Airbnb’s home city.

The Open is a fantastic event where our global host community can gather in one place and share tips and stories about hosting, hear from hospitality experts and together help shape future innovations in hospitality and travel. Around 6,000 Airbnb hosts from cities across the world are expected to attend the Open, which will take place from November 12-14.

The announcements were made yesterday at the City Hall in Paris by Brian Chesky, the CEO and co-founder of Airbnb, and Bruno Julliard, the First Deputy Mayor of Paris. He welcomed the news, saying:

“We are delighted that they [Airbnb] are continuing to support innovation in Paris by bringing their annual host gathering. This demonstrates the attractiveness of the French capital and its capacity to welcome international innovators.”

You can read more about this here.

Paris is a great example of what can happen when governments embrace innovation and provide clear legal frameworks for home sharing. They are now the world leader for home sharing and we look forward to working closely with the City as we continue our discussions on how we can simplify the collection of tourist taxes for our community.

More and more cities across the world are embracing home sharing and seeing the benefits it brings to hosts, guests and cities. We are proud so many Parisians are enjoying the benefits of this unique travel experience.

Tamino

AirBnB has put a very optimistic spin upon the situation in Paris. Notice the wording, that 40,000 Parisians are now opening their homes. AirBnB frames their comments this way because it is illegal to rent short term apartments unless the apartment belongs to the primary resident, secondary residents or pied-a-terres are not legal, and the primary resident is limited to renting his home for no more than 4 months a year.

AirBnB claims to have 40,000 listings in Paris alone. Take a look at a few of these listings and ask yourself, how many of these actually belong to someone who is living there full time and only renting for a brief period of time? Take a quick look at apartment availability; is it limited to only 4 months or is it available virtually any time of the year?

Right now there are a good number of fully furnished, small, one bedroom apartments for sell in the 4th, 5th, and 6th arrondissements. If you negotiate for an apartment rental and the property is sold between the time you reserve and the time you show up, you could find yourself with no where to stay.

I would approach any short term apartment rental in Paris with an abundance of caution.

Yahillwe

I know some people getting off the eurostar and the police stopping them to ask where they were staying.

So, be careful.

bodory

Looks like a routine police control due to threat of terrorist attacks and certainly not related to AirBnB.

bodory

Paris authorities are looking after people putting their (or some) apartments on AirBnB as their main source of income. They are not against Parisians putting their flat for rent on the Internet once or twice a year.

Note that the main threat for Parisians doing that, even occasionally, is not the authorities but their neighbors as most of not all declarations of condominium prevent the landlords to rent their apartments on short term basis.

Yahillwe

No, it wasn't a routine inspection. It was specific to airbnb.

bodory

While I am 100% confident in your saying, I am quite surprised that such a control did happen without any wave. To do so the Police would have indeed needed a warrant from the Paris prosecutor and the thing would certainly have been public like the custodies of some Über Pop drivers.

Interesting anyway.

dodo

IIRC they had a good 5 minutes on the 'locations vacances" on France 2 awhile ago and I don't recall if it was the police or some mairie employees following some tourists to their pad in Paris . At the same time, they had a couple of tenants or owners who were complaining about the deterioration of the stairs and/or entrance because of all "those va-et-vient" and their luggage. It was not targeted at Airbnb in particular

stut

Is this kind of enquiry mandatory to reply to in France? Certainly, if this happened to me in the UK, the office on question would be politely but unequivocally told to "mind yer ain".

Tamino

I remember the report but also remember that members of the mayor´s task force were posing the questions to unsuspecting tourists, not policemen.

The task force has the legal authority to enter into and inspect any advertised rental property, whether the occupants are there or not.

HMO

I used AirBnB in Paris a couple of years ago for a 3-week stay. One week prior my arrival (I was already in transit), I received a notification my rental was cancelled because the building will be renovated, and they were expecting water and gas shortages during my stay. The problems:

In the end, the apartment owner found me a friend of hers with an available apartment. In a worst and further location, higher floor (no elevator, of course), and less furniture (no sofa, no TV, no oven). And a little more expensive than the original one.

The alternatives were go to a hotel (more expensive) or flight back home (not exactly an alternative...)

Did the 1st owner help us to find a place? Certainly.
Did AirBnB help us? No.
Was I satisfied with the outcome? Not exactly. I felt ripped and abandoned.

I might use AirBnB in the future, but with a lot of caution.

Tamino

That could be true. It could also be that the apartment was withdrawn from the rental market because it was sold or because the mayor´s task force mandated it so.

I understand traveling on a budget and that the low cost of rental apartments is a big draw for many. However, there are well placed hotels which are not overly expensive. Consider these:


Cosmos Hotel
Hotel Diana
Hotel Marignan
Paris Lux Hotel

stut

How about the extramuros departments? Can you still happily do AirBnB in Hauts de Seine or Yvelines?